Troops Learn to Not Offend By Gretchen Cuda Wired News
02:00 AM Apr, 11, 2006 http://www.wired.com/news/technology/1,70576-0.html A seemingly harmless gesture could get a soldier in hot water, especially in a war-torn country. Body language that's meaningless in the United States -- such as showing the soles of one's feet -- is offensive in Iraq. So the American military is adopting a new video game created to help soldiers navigate the mysterious world of international nonverbal language. Developed by the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute, the Tactical Language Training Program is different from interactive language programs of the past, which focus solely on spoken language. In Tactical Iraqi, players navigate a set of real-life scenarios by learning a set of Arabic phrases, culturally relevant gestures and taboos. Other titles include Tactical Levantine and Tactical Pashto. Following each lesson, the player is asked to interact with other characters using speech and gestures, while a speech-recognition system records and evaluates the responses. Accurate responses allow the soldier to build a rapport with other characters and advance to the next level. The Army and Marine Corps have trained about 300 soldiers using the system, says Lewis Johnson of USC's Information Sciences Institute. Some of them traveled to Iraq with the game to continue their own training and share the knowledge with other troops. Johnson expects several thousand soldiers will have used the game by the end of the year. Misunderstanding nonverbal cues such as proximity while speaking, handshakes and subtle gestures like bowing the head or placing one's hand over the heart can create or destroy trust, says Hannes Vilhjalmsson, the project's technical director. "There is a whole sequence of things that has to happen in connection with what you are saying, and it's that kind of rich context of interaction that we are trying to re-create in the virtual environment," he says. Cultural taboos unknown to Americans can also lead to problems. For example, in Iraq, introducing yourself without also introducing everyone else with you is impolite. Vilhjalmsson recounts one situation in which an Iraqi man gestured to a female soldier by rubbing his fingers together. It was meant to indicate friendship, but the soldier interpreted the action to have an offensive sexual connotation. Many new soldiers have little, if any, international experience, says Lt. Christopher Seeley of the Marine Corps Expeditionary Warfare School. "An 18-year-old who joins the military might be in a foreign land for the first time and think that everyone does it like we do in America," Seeley says. Ironically, although the game was developed for the military, it contains no weapons or combat situations. It emulates a civil affairs mission and develops like a multipart story in which soldiers must gain the trust of the people they interact with in order to rebuild communities. "I got a kick out of removing the weapons and replacing them with gestures," Vilhjalmsson says. Tactical Language Training is a private company that has licensed the technology from USC and will continue developing the software. The company might also release a civilian version. The overwhelming response has both surprised and delighted Vilhjalmsson, who sees enormous potential, both for the software and for other interactive learning programs. "I don't think people realize what they're missing when they just learn from books," he says. Plus, video games are a great way to engage soldiers. "Most of the young troops out there are computer and video-game geniuses," he says. "This is something they can relate to." ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 antunes at uh dot edu Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _____________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list medianews@twiar.org To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
